


All Their Own

by likehandlingroses



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Just Right-verse fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 20:38:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12896325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likehandlingroses/pseuds/likehandlingroses
Summary: A celebration for Ruby and Dorothy's adopted son brings Rumple and Belle closer to a realization about their own family.





	All Their Own

 

“Rosie! I said now, please. Shoes on, or we can’t go to Granny’s.”

“I don’t wanna go,” Rosie replied, looking up at Rumple. She was seated on the first step of their stairs, as she had been for the past twenty minutes, and she seemed to have no intention of moving.  

“Well, your mother is already there, and Gideon and I are going. You can’t stay here by yourself.”

“I can stay here!” Rosie said. “I can stay here and play with my toys. See?”

She picked up the two dolls she had temporarily set down in order to argue with Rumple and held them out to him, as if that explained her point perfectly.

“I can stay right here, Papa!” she exclaimed, charmed by her own argument. Despite himself, Rumple was a bit charmed as well. But charmed didn’t get Rosie into the car.

“You can’t, darling. You can bring your dolls in the car, if you’d like,” Rumple offered. “But first you’ve got to get your boots on. And your jacket. It’s freezing out there.”

Rosie looked at Rumple as though she’d never heard of the cold.

“I can’t go,” she said, her voice quiet but her tone quite firm.

“Well, you have to.”

“Why?”

“Because-”Rumple cut himself off, not sure if he had the willpower to go over the same thing for the fifth time. He looked over at Gideon, who was standing in the foyer, all ready to go and looking concerned. He’d been looking forward to the party for weeks; Ruby and Dorothy were his favorite babysitters, and their stories of how they were going to take care of a baby who didn’t have any parents had enchanted him for some time.

“Rosie, you know why. I’ve told you. And I’ll not ask again: you’re to put your shoes on right now.” Rumple could hear the hardness in his voice, and he didn’t like it. He could remember a few times such a tone needed to be taken with either of his sons, but Rosie? She seemed determined to drive him to madness before listening to even the simplest requests.

“Papa, I said I don’t wanna go!”

“I understand, but sometimes we have to go places we don’t want to.”

“Why?”

Rumple sighed. “We’ll call Mama, see what she has to say.”

For whatever reason, Belle knew better how to handle Rosie. Rumple thought perhaps it was because she was more patient than he was. Rosie’s stubbornness didn’t frustrate her so easily. Indeed, when he called and told her their predicament, she merely laughed.

“So leave without her,” she said.

“I can’t leave-”

“She’ll come after you.”

“But her shoes-”

“Bring them with you. A few steps in the driveway won’t kill her, Rumple.”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“It will.”

She was right, as it turned out. Rosie didn’t react when Rumple declared that he supposed they _could_ leave without her after all. Gideon, on the other hand, looked horrified. He grabbed his father’s hand to stop him from opening the door.

“Papa, we can’t go without her! She’s only three! Please just wait one more minute! She’ll put her shoes on.” Gideon turned to his sister. “Rosie! You have to get ready right now!”

Rosie stood up, growing concerned at her brother’s panicked demeanor. She was—in her own way—quite protective of Gideon. Though the two were known to squabble, a deep love and sense of duty toward one another formed the base of their relationship.  Belle always said that Gideon kept a watchful eye over Rosie’s head, and Rosie safe guarded her brother’s heart.

“I’ve gotta get my shoes,” she said, as though it had been her idea all along.

In another moment, Rosie was in her jacket, and Gideon was tying up her boots for her.

“I want my hat!” she declared, and Rumple nodded. She could have whatever she wanted, so long as she got in the car.

 

* * *

 

Belle had been to many a celebration at Granny’s. However, none of them had seemed so full and joyous as this one. So often, the restaurant had merely played host to the momentous occasions of Storybrooke’s residents. Now, with Granny Lucas fawning over her great-grandson, Ruby beaming beside her, one hand on Dorothy’s shoulder, the place felt fit to burst with love.

The feeling only increased when Rumple arrived, each of their children clinging to one of his hands, both bundled up against the cold. She made her way through the sizable crowd to greet him, and he smiled in relief.

“Somehow, we’ve finally managed to make it,” he said, as Gideon ran to give his mother a hug.

“Can I see the baby, Mama?”

“Hold on, one minute. I’ll go over there with you.”

“Cookies!” Rosie pointed at one of the large platters, filled with cookies of all shapes and sizes. Rumple laughed and picked her up.

“This little girl thinks she ought to have a cookie after driving her father half mad trying to get her out of the house.”

“And this papa is going to give her one anyway,” Belle said, laughing at Rumple’s steps toward the cookies.

“Just a small one,” he said. “One of these stars, here. How’s that?” He held the cookie up to Rosie, who took it without complaint. She even broke off one of the star’s points and tried to hand it to him.

“Oh, thank you. But I’ll get my own. Which one should Papa get?”

Rosie considered for a moment. “The snowman!” she finally said, pointing to a cookie that was about the size of her head.

“Now, if I eat that one, I’ll start looking like a snowman. Something else...maybe a tree?”

Rosie nodded. “Yeah, that’s good for papas.”

“Well, then, I’d better eat it right away,” he said, winking at Belle. She shook her head and laughed.

“I’m going to take Gideon over to see the baby now.”

“We’ll be over here watching the food.”

All told, the evening went well. Gideon was quite enamored with Ruby and Dorothy’s new daughter, and he was especially eager to tell them that his papa had been adopted by two mamas as well.

“Mama, we should get a baby like that,” he told her later in one of Granny’s booths, over a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

She smiled and answered with a, “well, we’d have to talk about that with Papa.”  However, the idea was something she’d been contemplating for some time.

They had so much room for another child, in their home and in their hearts. And while she’d be happy to be pregnant again, there was something deeper calling her to open up her home to a child who needed one.

There was something to consider there, certainly.

 

* * *

 

 

“Thank you for the suggestion with Rosie.”

Belle looked up from her book. The children had just gone to sleep, and they were both settled in bed themselves, despite the early hour. Soon they’d be asleep before the children, Belle thought. They had boundless energy, and Belle had never felt older than she did watching them bounce around the house.

She was mad to want more. And yet, there she was, waiting for the next chapter of her book to end so she could set it down and ask Rumple what he thought about adoption.

Only now he’d interrupted her plans with his gratitude. She’d spent pages working up the nerve, and he’d unwittingly sent her back to square one.

“I’m glad it worked,” she said, going back to her book, hoping her heartrate would settle again. However, he kept going.

“How did you know to do that?”

Belle set her book down again, this time smiling in amusement.

“Do you really not know?”

Rumple puzzled over the question for a moment before getting red.

“Well, a temperamental Dark One and a three-year-old are similar in some ways, I’ll admit-”

“That’s not what I meant!” Belle said, giving a little laugh and reaching for his hand. “Rosie is acting just how I did when I was her age. And you—poor thing—have no idea what to do. Because you were just like Gideon—and I’m sure Bae as well. Sweet and ready to do what makes mama and papa happy. Not her. She’s like me. It has to be trial by fire. You have to let her see why things are the way they are. As much as you can, as much as it’s safe…you have to let her make mistakes. And she’ll make a lot of them, trust me.”

Rumple smiled at her and nodded. “She’s certainly different from Gideon. Or Bae. They’re all different. But it’s better that way. They’re all their own.”

The room went quiet, and Belle nearly went back to her book before deciding now was as good a time as any. She’d only make the anticipation worse by waiting.

“Rumple...what do you think of adoption? For us, I mean?”

He didn’t look surprised that she’d asked, which seemed a good first sign. He nodded, though his eyes were distant. Belle could see him attempting to organize a thought of his own.

“Actually...I’ve been looking at fostering,” he finally answered. “Adoption takes some time, and our house is so big...it seems a waste, not to fill it.”

Of all the answers Belle had expected him to give, that hadn’t been one of them.

“You’ve been researching?”

“Is that so surprising?” Rumple teased. “Yes, I have, and the more I read...the more it sounds like us. I know there’s challenges, but I think we’re suited for them.”

Belle had done plenty of her own reading on the subject, and she couldn’t say she disagreed. Foster parents needed to be patient, flexible, and ready to meet each child where they were. If she and Rumple had any strength at all as parents, those would be on the list. However, a few anxieties had held her back from contemplating the idea too seriously.

“Do you think Gideon and Rosie would mind it? It’s a lot to take in. And…” Belle paused, trying to consider how to say what she meant without hurting Rumple. “Well, most of the children would leave. Would that be alright with you?”

Rumple only smiled, as though he’d known she’d ask the question and had an answer ready-made.

“You mean because of Bae? That’s why I want to do it. When I wasn’t well, I’d have wanted someone to take care of him. I wished with everything I had that someone was, every day we were apart. There’s children who have families, just not right now. And they need someone in the meantime, don’t they? And if a few of them make their way here permanently, then so much the better.”

He said it all without hesitation, as though he’d practiced, but the words were no less sincere for it.

“And our children? Will they understand?”

Rumple nodded. “I think so. We just have to help them. Gideon’s half in love with the idea already. Rosie’s the baby, so she’ll always have to adjust if anyone else turns up. But she’s wise, you know? She’s got a good heart.”

“She’s not the only one.”

Rumple only squeezed her hand in response.

“So...do you think we should?” he said, after a long pause.

Belle leaned forward and placed her free hand on his cheek before kissing him. She waited until one of Rumple’s hands found its resting place on her back before she pulled away and locked eyes with him.

“Absolutely.”

  
  
  



End file.
